GH: Classic Thread

[DRW50]

They were a real dream team, especially considering how bare the show was when they each showed up. It's funny because I am complaining now about our saviors "Cartini" not letting dropped stories stay dropped, but it's mostly about the stories and if they have potential. The stories which were potentially winding down when they arrived, like Rick/Monica/Lesley, and Heather's black market baby, had plenty of potential.

I know Marland was not fond of Monty at all - Thom Racina told a story in a recent radio interview about how when you went to Marland's bathroom and lifted up the toilet seat, there was a picture of Gloria.

[SweetPea36]

I just found it on Wikipedia. Marland left because he wanted to go slower, but Monty was pushing for something more dramatic (the rape). He left, Pat Falken Smith took over and she wrote the rape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_and_Laura

[SweetPea36]

Laughing at the toilet seat photo. I'm not surprised. I was surprised when I kept looking at the dates he was writing GH and it looked like it covered the time of the rape. That is not his style. He left and PFS probably wrote what Monty wanted. I know the interviews I've read were all GM and no writer was mentioned.

"From that point on, we played [Luke's] regret and his total devastation," Geary said. "That's a story nobody wants to tell - that the rapist's life is as devastated as the person he rapes. His great love and regret and guilt are what caught the audience so off guard."

I'm not going to say which in which of his orifices his head was stuck when he said that. Many women turned against Geary for that and other stupid things he said at the time.

Edited April 22, 2012 by SweetPea36

[DRW50]

Thanks.

I'm not sure how close she was to Falken-Smith either - maybe that's why she eventually had her sister come in.

[SweetPea36]

From everything I've heard about GM, she probably wanted to tell the HW what to write and for it to be done her way with no arguments.

[DRW50]

When did you start watching GH?

[SweetPea36]

The first day it aired.

And you? You've obviously been watching for a while. I'm amazed at how well some of you remember the old P&G soaps especially.

Edited April 22, 2012 by SweetPea36

[DRW50]

Wow. That's amazing.

What did you think of Valerie Starrett as Diana vs. Brooke Bundy?

Do you think Martin West was as good as Roy Thinnes as Phil Brewer?

How did you feel when the show started clearing out characters like Howie, Sharon, etc.? I know there was a big clearout in 75 but can never remember how many left.

[SweetPea36]

I was okay when they cleared out that bunch of characters. It got too busy for a while there, with too many characters who didn't really belong and had a tenuous connection. I come from a long line of women who love soaps. My grandmothers used to listen to radio soaps, so I tend to have a preference for the old family oriented shows and I thought they were diluting that too much. GH was tighter after that, so it was good.

I had a major crush on Roy Thinnes' Phil. Anyone trying to replace him would have needed to bring in a tub of water and walk on it before I would have totally accepted him, even though I knew Thinnes wanted to leave. To be fair, West did a good job in the role. His only major fault was that he wasn't Thinnes.

I far preferred Starett because I didn't like how they changed Diana but I can understand why they did it. Bundy was better at who Diana became. I'm not sure Starett could have played that.

An online friend and I have some lively arguments over that hussy Audrey taking Steve away from Jessie. It gets pretty funny sometimes.

I only found out very recently that Emily McLaughlin is believed to have been an alcoholic. That was probably her attraction to Jeffrey Hunter, her last husband. She was also his last wife because he died not long after they were married. That also may be why Jessie Brewer disappeared from GH and was only dragged out of mothballs a couple of times a year. They never wrote her out.

[ghfan89]

An excerpt from a 1982 interview in the St. Petersburg Times from Marland:

"I never would have had Luke rape Laura. My idea for that story was to have Luke worship Laura from afar. I planned for him to get into deeper and deeper trouble with the syndicate and try and try to get away from them. His reason to escape the mob: his love of Laura and his desire for her. And in the end, no matter what Luke had done for Laura---all the money he had given her, all the trouble he had gotten into [on] her behalf---she never would have loved him.

I adored the character of Laura, but she was vain. Vanity was a big part of Laura's personality. Luke and Laura never would have gotten together in my storyline. I had other things in mind for Luke."

[SweetPea36]

No wonder Marland and Monty locked horns.

[DRW50]

The TV magazines and soap magazines ran stories for years about Emily's loss, her great, true love, how she coped on her own (or with her son). It was sometimes maudlin to read. I guess alcoholism would also help explain her serious health problems starting in the late 70's.

Emily McLaughlin seems like a fascinating woman. I remember an interview with her where she talked about fan mail, and how important it was to her, etc. She talked about a letter from a woman who was terrified of leaving her home, but who wanted to move, to start over. Finally Emily, scared for this woman, met her and went with her to deal with her landlord, and got her in touch with people. She also talked about a letter which haunted her, because of a story where Jessie convinced a teenage unwed mother to not give her baby up for adoption. The letter was from a girl's mother, who said that her daughter had kept her baby, because of what Jessie had said. This had been too much for the girl, taking care of a child, and she had committed suicide.

There was a certain sorrow in Jessie which made you identify with and care about her. You don't have that today. Who can identify with Carly?

From what I've seen of Valerie Starrett I really preferred her too - Bundy's DIana seems kind of fake and pathetic.

Do you think Monty intentionally phased out everything of the show from before she became producer? By the mid-80's, all that was left were Steve and Audrey and Jessie, and they were rarely on.

What did you think of the stories like Leslie's "demonic" fetus, and the intro of the Webbers? Were you sad to see Terri go?

[SweetPea36]

I know it's blasphemy on this site, but I never liked Lesley or Denise Alexander. When she came on, it was usually my cue to go do the dishes or something. Because of that, I probably should not talk about some of her stories. I honestly don't remember a demonic fetus, but why not? Watching the YTs of the L&L rape and seeing some of the scenes with Alexander's Lesley and Chris Robinson's Rick, I was reminded of how awful I always thought they were. Although I generally liked the Lesley character, Denise had some acting tics and weaknesses that always bothered me. I never minded Laura as much, although I never thought she was very interesting and I always wondered why so many men were willing to jump into the volcano for her. Vapid doesn't blow my skirt up.

Terri's only purpose was to deliver the reveal about Steve Hardy being Jeff's father, wasn't it? I think they tried to do a big romantic story for her but it kind of fizzled and I don't remember why. I was working at the time and didn't get to see GH as often, so I missed some of her story. I remember she was standard-issue pretty, not much else.

I was fine with bringing on the Webbers because I prefer a family-centered soap and it was time for Steve Hardy to have a family to anchor him. For the first years when the hospital stories were big drama and everybody was playing musical chairs and pairing off with each other, it was different but eventually that wasn't solid enough.

Emily being an alcoholic explains a lot of things that always puzzled me about her. Who was the husband she was supposedly pining for, Robert Lansing? I saw a tape ages ago of John Beradino talking about Emily, I think when GH finally said Jessie had died. At the time I wondered why Beradino sounded so sympathetic but her problems explain that. It was probably painful for him to work that closely with her knowing what was going on with her and then watching her be let go. He was probably worried about her. Of course his character had that brazen temptress Audrey to fill her shoes.

What I always heard about Gloria Monty is that she was a huge control freak who did not work and play well with others. It was Gloria's way or the wrong way. She had no use for anyone who preceded or succeeded her, so she probably wrote them all off without a second thought. It was all about Gloria. She locked horns with everybody and was quite disrespectful of anyone who did not agree with her.

Edited April 22, 2012 by SweetPea36

[DRW50]

The husband she pined for was supposed to be Jeff Hunter.

I've heard a lot of fans say they lost interest in RIck after Michael Gregory left.

Terri's only story was her love for Mark Dante, who was married to a mentally ill woman, who constantly schemed to keep him.

Chris Schemering's book panned this story and the early Rick/Monica affair as basically being trash. I've only seen a little of them, towards the tail end, so I never know what it was like.

I wish I could see James Sikking's work on the show (I think his character was named Hobart - the emotionally crippled alcoholic Audrey was married to). He must have been fairly popular as he was on the show for a number of years. I liked him on Hill Street Blues.

Did it ever bother you that GH kept their organ music after the other soaps had dropped theirs? I kind of like it.

Thanks. I can certainly see this in his writing for Laura.

[SweetPea36]

Of course Monica and Rick's great love story was trash. Monica was total lowlife trash, so how could it have been any different? GH worked at redeeming her for a time and she has become a Carly-level hypocrite now, but she was as bad as Carly back when she was younger. One of the things I liked about pre-John Ingle Edward was that he loved to remind Monica about her past.

I loved Sikking on Hill Street Blues, one of my favorite shows of all times. I was never quite sure what his purpose on GH was supposed to be. He was an alcoholic doctor who was enabled by Audrey and then when he sobered up he got ugly and turned on her, if I recall. He was gone shortly after that in one of those big character purges. I think it was a case where the actor was better than the character so they probably hated to cut him loose. I also think he and Rachel Ames played off each other well. Audrey always did that thing where she looked like your best friend's church lady mother, but she was tough as nails underneath that. Didn't she and Steve get all hot and heavy as soon as Hobart was gone?

I liked the organ music on soaps. I hate that wheezy asthmatic sounds organs make, but for some reason it worked with soap operas. Given a choice between Starr's singing and a wheezy old organ, I would choose the organ any day. I'd rather listen to an organ than Dave Koz' sexaphone.